Author: Celia Booher

Here’s some Food for Thought! In the fall we raise money for the Umoja school lunch program, which provides a nutritious daily meal to 3,100 students in 18 primary schools. We are excited to be adding Uradi Primary School, our 19th school, in 2019! The food security program also provides food for child-headed households for…

This weekend we are launching the Boys Empowerment Team of Umoja Project. The program for adolescent boys focuses on healthy interpersonal relationships, goal setting and psychosocial support for these young students, who face enormous challenges as they pursue education and work towards becoming productive, self-sufficient adults. The highly successful girls empowerment program (GET UP) started…

Female Umoja students in secondary school spent a few days in Nakuru for the Girls Empowerment Team retreat. They divided into groups (named after notable universities, such as Oxford, Harvard and Yale) and spent time with mentors, postsecondary students and community leaders. The retreat emphasizes healthy relationships and goal setting and is an awesome opportunity…

Langston celebrated his 14th birthday while visiting Kenya with his parents. Their time with the Umoja Project inspired Langston to donate the money he made cutting grass this summer to the project. His donation will support two day school secondary tuitions! Thank you, Langston, for your generous contribution and for showing that every person can…

Our Duke Divinity School interns are back in Durham after an inspiring summer with the students, volunteers and staff of the Umoja Project. They tell the story of their time in Chulaimbo in this short video.

Zipora Alidise (class 7), Teresa Lusiana (class 2), and Melon Atieno (early childhood development) live with their mother Grace Ayot in a mud home a fifteen-minute walk from their school, Chulaimbo Primary. They have received support from Umoja in the form of school lunch, uniforms, a blanket, and a solar lamp. On the day that…

After years of feedback that boys need a program to support them during their adolescent years, GIP’s Umoja Project is able to make it a reality thanks to a starter grant through the Power of One. This summer our Duke interns and two interns from Indiana University are conducting stakeholder surveys with our male Umoja…

by Bailey and Courtney Sanford, 2018 Duke Divinity Interns Hello friends! I hope you all are well. Below are some updates from our last few weeks in Kenya: One of our internship tasks is to conduct interviews with students and stakeholders regarding a “Boy’s Empowerment” program that Umoja will begin this fall. For many years…

Update from Courtney Sanford, Duke Divinity School Intern Dear Friends and Family, When I arrived in Kenya last Tuesday, I joined Bailey at Mama Fransisca’s. She welcomed me by slaughtering a chicken for us. Bailey wanted to learn how it was done, so she taught us the Kenyan way. Fransisca has been teaching Bailey lots…

Elvis is in class 1 (the equivalent of first grade) and is already the primary caregiver in his home. He cooks, cleans, fetches firewood and water, washes clothes, and cares for his ill grandmother and three younger siblings. Elvis was abandoned by his parents when he was just three years old. AIDS has orphaned most of…